Valley Roundup - July 18th, 2014

Welcome to Valley Roundup. It’s a review of the top news stories of the week in Aspen and beyond.

Joining us today are Andy Stone, former editor of and now columnist for the Aspen Times and Curtis Wackerle, Managing Editor of the Aspen Daily News.

This week there was a double-homicide in El Jebel. The same week a pedestrian was hit and killed on highway 82, this comes on the heels of a high profile murder in Aspen and the death of a rafter. Today we reflect on how big city this all sounds.

Also, are we loving the outdoors to death? Judging for the Conundrum Hot Springs…maybe so.

Proposals are lining up for what to do with the old Aspen Art Museum, we look at the Lodging incentive program and the strange partnership of Lee Mulcahy and Maurice Emmer.

On the download with Rob St. Mary a how-to for safe sexting. It’s all ahead on Valley Roundup.

Related Content

Welcome to Valley Roundup, a review of the top news stories of the week in the Roaring Fork Valley.

This week - Fracking.

Aspen Public Radio and the Aspen Times toured a drilling and hydraulic fracturing rig in Parachute recently and this week our stories ran. Joining us are Scott Condon reporter for the Aspen Times and our own Elise Thatcher.

On the November ballot this year voters will have a number of fracking issues to decide, among them whether local communities should have control over oil and gas exploration.

Our reporting looked at one fracking operation run by WPX Energy. It is one of the big players in the industry. We got an up close look at what is going on at drilling rig H & P 318.

This week we feature a single interview on the show. Admiral Mike McConnell retired this week from his post as Vice Chairman of Booz Allen Hamilton the giant intelligence contractor for the U.S. Government. Most people know it as the company that employed Edward Snowden.

In his long career Admiral McConnell also served as director of the National Security Agency (NSA) in the 1990’s. He was Director of National Intelligence under Presidents Bush and Obama and was the top intelligence officer for General Colin Powell in the run-up to the Iraq war in 2003.

It was Powell who told President Bush before the invasion that, “If you break it you own it.” In an interview, McConnell told us that what is happening now in Iraq validates Powell’s prediction.

McConnell was in town for the Aspen Ideas Festival and we spoke in his room at the Aspen Meadows. Note: an edited version of this interview aired earlier in the week.

Welcome to Valley Roundup, a review of the week’s top news stories in Aspen and beyond.

There is a guilty plea today from William Styler in the murder of Aspen local Nancy Pfister. He will be sentenced to 20 years. Also all charges were dropped against Kathy Carpenter. We’ll hear the details from our Elise Thatcher.

Also joining us today are Carolyn Sackariason from the Aspen Daily News, Michael Miracle from Aspen Sojourner magazine and Andy Stone from the Aspen Times.

We’ll talk about the new real estate magnate in Aspen. His name is Mark Hunt and he gave an exclusive interview to the Aspen Daily News this week. Carolyn tells us about it.

Also the Pitkin County Commission responds to the big wedding and

On the Download we learn why Facebook has lost the hip. Teens are exiting in large numbers.